Lying In States

These locals are a pretty passionate lot, and they're not shy about showing it--but they've never made me feel played, like they're lazily relying on overwrought shrieks as a sort of emotional equivalent to Pavlov's bell. Their new Wildfire on the Lake (Flameshovel Records) is more straightforward gut-spill indie rock than its predecessor, Most Every Night, but it's no less effective, working overtime to maintain a twitchy, unsettled feeling, like the fear of getting jumped not when you're walking down a dark alley but while you're sitting in your busy office. These guys aren't about making your nightmares come true--they'd rather hit you with something you never saw coming.

-- Monica Kendrick, Chicago Reader, 3/17/06